1. Field of the Invention
The application relates to a touch panel, and more particularly to a touch panel having electro-static discharge protection.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past few years, with rapid development and application in information technology, wireless mobile communication, and information appliance, conventional input devices such as a keyboard or mouse for a lot of information products are now replaced by a touch panel as an input device for the products to be easier to use, more compact, and more human.
A touch panel can be roughly categorized into a resistive touch panel, a capacitive touch panel, an optical touch panel, a surface acoustic wave touch panel, and an electromagnetic touch panel based on the way it senses. Compared with other types of touch panels, the capacitive touch panel has the advantages of short response time, favorable reliability, high definition, etc. and is therefore widely used in various types of handheld electronic apparatus.
Generally, damages caused by the electrostatic discharge (ESD) possibly happen to an electronic product at any time when the electronic product is manufactured, packaged, tested, delivered, even finally shipped and used, which leads to high risk of malfunction. The touch panel is also likely to be damaged by electrostatic discharge. Therefore, an ESD protection circuit is usually made for the touch panel for protection. Nevertheless, the width of the ESD protection circuit causes the border size of the touch panel to be increased, which does not meet the requirement that current electronic products tend to be designed with small sizes.